Rovio in just a few years to become the world's most well-known mobile gaming business

After a magic bird created a world-wide game, Rovio in just a few years to become the world's most well-known mobile gaming business, its successful marketing strategy makes the "Angry Birds" series created a global Download 1 billion times myth. The Rovio of fame and fortune is staggering in advertising, and the Chinese market has become one of the priorities of its future development. Rely on the immediate success, Rovio is starting to build a Disney-like new Internet entertainment brand, on the basis of the game to animation, toys, film and television entertainment, theme park and other aspects of expansion.

"Angry Birds" from a game started, is expanding into an entertainment industry chain.

The player's enthusiasm for the bird continues to soar. Rovio new "Angry Bird: Space Edition" listing 35 days, download more than 50 million times, the history of the fastest load growth of mobile games. Rovio has claimed more than once that he wants to become an entertainment kingdom like Disney, and that diversification is becoming the path it is now choosing. Rovio is now working to create "Angry Birds" as a multi-platform entertainment brand, with the intention of replicating its success in mobile gaming to anime and other derivatives fields.

In 2003, Finland's Niklas Hed and friends designed the mobile game "the King of Cabbage", and Hewlett-Packard and Nokia jointly organized the contest bonuses, after 3 people with the bonus set up Relude, namely Rovio predecessor. The "King of Cabbage" was later sold and renamed "Weasel War" to become the world's first multiplayer mobile phone game. In 2005, Relude changed its name to Rovio, and the company turned to 2D Java game development and distribution. Before the launch of "Angry Birds", Rovio mainly engaged in the design of game outsourcing for large companies. However, after the 2008 financial crisis, Rovio outsourcing business shrank, on the verge of collapse. In the 2009, Rovio created a "magical bird", the game background on a tropical island, a group of birds without legs and wings, to the wild boar came to steal the eggs, revenge, with their angry body as shells, smashed to the boar.

The game, which was launched at an astonishing rate after the Apple App Store was released, was even hailed as one of the most incredible popular cultures of the 2010 by the New York Times, and was named the 2010 "cultural symbol of the year". Jaakko Iisalo, the original designer, said the game's popular secret was that the game was designed to be simple, easy to handle but difficult to grasp. Rovio revealed that the "Angry Birds" from December 2009 to September 2011, the player accumulated in the game spent 300 million minutes a day, the popularity of the show.

Multi-pronged to help the birds soar

Looking back on this magical bird, its success has become a myth that cannot be duplicated. Rovio has launched 51 games before, but it has not left a special impression on them. The success of "Angry Birds" can not be attributed to luck alone, the marketing strategy behind the team is an important guarantee for the birds to accelerate the spread.

Years of entrepreneurial experience makes Rovio team have good marketing skills. At the end of 2009, "Angry Birds" first appeared in the Finnish Apple App Store, with its clever game design picking the top of the list of paid downloads, followed by the same popularity in Sweden, Denmark, Greece and other countries. Start by entering the market from non-gaming mainstream countries, allowing angry birds to accumulate enough popularity in Apple's App store.

Rovio that it is not easy to get into the mainstream game market, the marketing model in small countries can not be easily transplanted to the United States and other markets. So, when still unknown Rovio find Chillingo cooperation issue game. Chillingo, an independent game distributor, has been successful in selling too many games and has a good relationship with Apple, which played an important role in the early promotion of "Angry Birds".

Under Rovio and Chillingo's lobbying, Apple agreed to recommend games at the App Store. Starting February 11, 2010, "Angry Birds" were set on top of the Apple App Store's homepage for a week. In addition, Rovio has launched a free compact version of "Angry Birds" for users to download the demo, and produced a YouTube video to do more than 17 million views.

With Apple's platform, "Angry Birds" soon swept the world, download quickly from the UK Apple App store No. 600 climbed to the top, April 2010 on the U.S. Apple App Store download volume first. The success of branding and marketing has made the game a long time in the world of nearly 80 countries and regions of the Apple App Store firmly occupy the top of the download volume.

After a great success on the Apple platform, Rovio began to expand its other application platforms. Currently, platforms that support "Angry Birds" include iOS (ipod Touch, iphone and ipad), Android, SYMBIAN3 and other mobile platforms. In addition, the improved version of the game can be ported to PCs, Macs, play redevelop, PSP and Facebook platforms. May 2012, Rovio announced that the "Angry Birds" series in the global platform download more than 1 billion times (photo), the largest ever downloaded mobile phone game.

Not only that, with the release of the new version, "Angry Birds" the popularity of the series has increased, the first generation of games in 5 months to accumulate to 10 million downloads, and the latest "Angry Bird: Space Edition" only spent 3 days to download the volume of this level (table 1). Each version of the game has triggered a more frenzied chase, constantly refreshing the record of downloading more than 10 million times.

Work with multiple partners to ensure game heat

Despite the unprecedented success of the "Angry Birds" series, new rivals are emerging every day as competition intensifies in the mobile and social gaming markets. "Angry Birds" have lost their top spot in the US iphone app rankings, but they are keeping the game on the back of their huge user base. However, Rovio is not satisfied with the status quo and hopes to keep the game alive by working with more third parties.

In the book retailer Barner&noble's store, Rovio set up a ranking, and sales of surrounding products. Vachmans, former senior vice president of Rovio, said that tens of thousands of users of the Nook had been given free access to the use of "Angry Birds" and more than 10,000 people had spent more than 30 minutes playing bird games in bookstores. For bookstores, this cooperation helps to increase the volume of traffic in bookstores.

Leisure places are also Rovio locked targets. 2011, Rovio and Starbucks and other retailers to discuss cooperation to obtain more new users, sales of more types of products. Moreover, Rovio is not satisfied with the mobile game, in the last 1 years to promote the PC-oriented and Roku streaming games, and consider in the TV-linked devices to publish the game. A few days ago, "Angry Birds" unveiled Samsung's smart TV platform. Meanwhile, in order to make the game ubiquitous on the Internet, Rovio also released a google++ version of the game, home Facebook.

Business diversification, potential money-earning index staggering

Originally developed this popular global mobile phone games, Rovio investment cost of about 100,000 U.S. dollars, but its current market valuation has exceeded 9 billion U.S. dollars. In the Apple App Store, the bird game charges 0.99 dollars, minus 30% of Apple's charge, which means that Rovio can earn as much as $70 million per 100 million downloads.

In addition to the most direct game download revenue, Rovio another way to make money is advertising. Rovio chief Marketing Officer Peter Wistbacka introduced, as of 2011, Rovio Monthly Advertising display volume reached 10 billion times, more than Google became the world's largest mobile advertising publishers. Although it is impossible to know Rovio's specific revenue in advertising, its future earnings index is absolutely astonishing.

Not only that, Rovio also spared no effort to develop a variety of derivative products, flying birds in the screen into a variety of clothing, toys, the iconic icon. For example, Rovio first introduced plush toys for a minimum price of 13 U.S. dollars, in the initial month of the launch of the sale of 1 million birds and green pig plush toys. According to reports, currently Rovio can sell 3 million genuine "Angry Birds" plush toys and 1 million T-shirts each month, in addition, there are more than 20,000 authorized "Angry Birds" products, including books, shoes, mobile phone shell and other products. The success of the digital field has led Rovio to aggressively spread the target into a diversified business.

Rovio's goal is not only to play games and ads, but also to the magic of the bird to the field of animation. "Angry Birds: Rio's Adventures" is designed to promote the Fox's "Rio Adventure", although the film is not much related to the game. Rovio is currently making a 52-episode cartoon with the theme "Angry Birds" and is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2012, and the film plan announced by Rovio in 2011 is still underway.

Work with pirates to develop China market

Rovio revealed that "Angry Birds" is the most copied game in the Chinese market, while China is also the fastest growing market for its game products, with 1 billion of its global downloads, the Chinese market exclusive of 140 million times, after the United States. However, although the Chinese market has hundreds of millions of bird fans, but most users use a free game version, so Rovio most of the revenue in the Chinese market from the sale of derivative products. Nevertheless, Rovio still placed high hopes on the Chinese market, and recently frequently with Baidu, Sohu, Tencent, Sina and Youku and other Internet companies to discuss cooperation matters. Although it is hard to make money selling games, placing ads in games with hundreds of millions of users will significantly increase Rovio's income in the Chinese market.

After entering the Chinese market, Rovio first held a realistic version of the "Angry Birds" game in Changsha, Hunan province, and then, in the Mid-Autumn Festival, launched the "Angry Birds" mooncakes in Hong Kong. In June 2012, Rovio announced that the Shanghai office was officially operational and opened two "Angry Birds" retail stores in July, the first to open a retail store in Rovio outside Finland. Rovio will also sponsor Shanghai's first "Angry Bird" theme park at Shanghai's Tongji University, but the theme park, which is non-commercial, will be open to the public free of charge.

In the Chinese market, not only "Angry Birds" are cracked for free download, there are many imitation games and products. Faced with the problem of piracy, Rovio did not blindly use legal weapons, and even chose to co-operate with some of the pirates. Vesterbacka says some of the things that happen in China are good for them, "You know how high the market needs to see these products." Rovio also said it would open hundreds of retail outlets and several theme parks in China in recent years.

Disney that shapes the game world

Rovio Disney as the goal, but compared to the cultural heritage of Disney, Rovio still less. Disney has nearly hundred kinds of cartoon image, in addition to household names of Mickey Mouse, as well as Donald Duck, Pooh Bear, Peter Pan and other images of the deep rooted, each image behind a story. This makes every cartoon character is endowed with vitality, become Disney's enduring charm. After decades of accumulation, Disney has formed three major industries, the television broadcasting network, the theme park and the resort, and the entertainment industry. 2011, Disney total revenue of 40.8 billion U.S. dollars, net profit of up to 8.8 billion U.S. dollars (table 2).

Obviously, Rovio is still a long way to learn and catch up. Annual business receipts amounted to $106.3 million trillion, of which 32 million dollars came from consumer products, including revenue from sales of souvenirs and licensing, with a pre-tax profit of $67.6 million, according to Rovio2011. Its income is only 1/400 of Disney, The gap is far. What's more, Rovio currently has the "Angry Birds" brand, even more thin. In Finland, the "Angry Birds" theme park, launched by Rovio, was officially opened to the public on April 28, 2012. The theme park is full of "Angry Birds" of the various role models, but also with a variety of recreational facilities, such as merry-go-round and roller coaster, as well as the route of the young and old. The Rovio theme park is clearly not comparable to Disney and lacks enough content to support a huge theme park like Disneyland.

Rovio, however, has grown rapidly in a few short years, with a market valuation of about $1 billion trillion in 2009, then a year of 2.5 billion dollars, and a surprising 9 billion in 2011. As a new type of Internet entertainment brand, Rovio shows a different side of the past entertainment brands, although the company's soft and hard power in the current is not enough to support its becoming a world-class enterprise, but its staggering number of fans make everything possible. Rovio revealed that as of 2011, the "Angry Birds" series of games downloaded more than 648 million times, monthly active users 200 million. This brings a steady stream of revenue to the Rovio, while also ensuring that its derivatives market is vibrant.

With billions of popularity, Rovio has dabbled in a variety of industrial chains similar to Disney's vast entertainment kingdom, rooted in the game's main business, spreading to the surrounding products of clothing, books, dolls, anime, movies, and theme parks. In the eyes of Rovio management, mobile games are not the company's final positioning, the formation of such as Disney's Entertainment kingdom is their pursuit of the goal, and is expected in the next 5-10 years, the current Disney's 85 billion U.S. dollar market value of the height. Rovio executives have said that the company will seek to list in New York or Hong Kong in the next 3 years, perhaps with the help of capital, Rovio's dream of surpassing Disney can be a step forward.

July 12, 2012, Rovio in the global synchronization of the first new game "Magical Force" (amazing Alex), to undertake the "Angry Birds" fiery, the first day on the launch of the Apple App Store toll download list Number one. Perhaps, this game can create new wonders for Rovio again, enrich its product line.

Papaya Mobile: Platform strategy

Starting with the development of mobile games, the Papaya movement turns into an open platform that connects Third-party game developers and players.

The Papaya Mobile (papaya Mobile), founded in 2008, is dedicated to creating a global mobile Community gaming platform. In the initial stage of entrepreneurship, the main development of Papaya mobile phone chess game, but the performance is flat. After a period of silence, papaya mobile seize the farm game began to prevail in the domestic opportunities, to create an iphone platform Farm-type game Papaya Farm. The game was well received and attracted more than 10 million of players.

Subsequently, the papaya movement released Papaya Fish. With the Papaya farm user base, the game released the same day to achieve good results. Together with the later release of Papaya Pet, these three games have brought millions of active users to the game market, enabling them to occupy a niche in the gaming marketplace.

Beginning from the game to accumulate a certain number of loyal fans and popularity, papaya Mobile adjusted the strategic direction, will focus on platform management, user maintenance and community management, to create a link to third-party game developers and players open platform, the content to the global content providers.

Contemplative, a former Google-made Papaya Mobile CEO, launched a Google-like open platform and global layout strategy that quickly gained the support of more than 350 game development companies, teams and individual developers worldwide. Through years of development, Papaya Mobile is the largest Android community gaming platform in the United States and Western Europe. As of 2011, its registered users reached 32 million, of which overseas users 30 million, domestic users 2 million.

The ultimate goal of Papaya Mobile is to become a mobile internet world of Facebook, the implementation of Cross-platform platform for community gaming. Its website mainly includes the papaya community, the Papaya game engine, the Papaya social SDK and the papaya incubator. The papaya community is a mobile SNS community based on smartphones, which supports the three major platforms of Apple, Android and win Phone7, the Android platform being the focus of development.

Papaya Mobile is not only a community gaming platform, but also a platform for game developers to provide support. The Papaya engine is the 2D OpenGL engine on the Androping platform for developers to use, while also helping developers reduce game development costs. In addition to technical support, Papaya Mobile also promotes game developers ' products on the papaya social platform through viral marketing. In addition, as the Papaya Mobile incubator project, the papaya gangs can provide developers with free office and development environment, cloud computing services, game design training and guidance, and provide access to the market and promotion channels.

"In the early days of the company's development, we had to issue a popular game to get a decent income," he said. Focus on the platform, short-term gains and spending growth, can only maintain a basic break-even, the main source of profit is to rely on the use of the Papaya Community virtual currency system, users pay when the papaya mobile can be collected from about 20% of the split. "Contemplative said. However, the gaming industry is never bad for money, in the past two years, the Papaya Mobile has won a total of 22 million U.S. dollars from Chinese venture capital Keytone and DCM.

According to IDC statistics, as of 2012, the global share of Android has reached 59%, an increase of 145% per cent, already far exceeding the market share of 23%, the second Apple iOS system. This message is rooted in the Android system of Papaya Mobile, is undoubtedly a big positive.